If I had...

If I had a million dollars I would...

...buy thousands of pillow cases and make them into dresses to send here: Little Dresses for Africa



...buy this painting from Kitt Brook Studios and hang it over my stairs:



I would...

... have a dairy parlor that looked like this for Abby:


... have a garden that looked like this, where I could host fun tea parties:



with tea sets from Stash Tea  like this:


and serve cheeses that looked like this:





I would...

... set up a bakery so Nathalie could create cakes that look like this:



and pastries like this:



I would...


...build a 4-H barn like this in our town for all the 4-H clubs, at which they could meet, hold events, and display their awards:






... send hundreds of goats through Heifer International all over the world



What would you do?

Some Of My Favorite Finds On the Web

I found this fun little game the other day: http://www.squaro.fr/app/


Since we are going to be helping out Sam's parents with their hay this summer, I have been researching hay baling options (they currently do loose hay storage). A baler purchase is definitely not an option. I found this cute little contraption: http://oak-hill-homestead.blogspot.com/2007/09/hay-baling.html They claim you can do 100 bales in a very long day. Sam will build two and with all our "helpers" we might actually get all the hay baled and stored.

For those 4H'ers who need practice with identifying the parts of the goat:
http://www.goats4h.com/Java/GoatPartsTest.html

I am always looking for books for Abby and Nathalie to read. Finding that balance between reading level (both are reading on or above a high school level) and age appropriate material is not so easy. So many high school level books deal with boyfriends, girlfriends and romance. This site has a great list of books for teens: http://www.monroe.lib.in.us/fiction/xian_ya.html

I am thinking about buying this for Hannah: http://www.alwrightpub.com/poultry.htm It is a unit study centered around chickens! They have one for goats too: http://learn-and-do.com/goat.htm

Here is one of my favorite "parenting" websites: http://www.raisinggodlytomatoes.com/default.asp It is from this website that I found one of my favorite clothes sewing pattern sites: http://www.commonsensepatterns.com/csp_main.htm

Oprah has her "Favorite Things", so I thought I would list mine:

My favorite Artist: http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/dataviewer.asp?keyvalue=4379&page=Works&startrec=1&displayperpage=9999

Such beautiful pastels and watercolors! My favorite one so far:

Favorite thing to do with the family: Letterboxing. http://letterboxing.org/

This site tells you all you need to know about letterboxing. We don't do it so much in the winter, but in the spring and summer we take several hikes using the clues found on this site.

My Favorite CD: Josh Groban's Noel

My favorite dress for my girls: from Hanna Andersson

Favorite coffee pot: Hamilton Beach BrewStation 12 cup

Certainly not as extensive or as pricey as Oprah's list!